choosing a web optimisation company

How do I choose the right company and not waste my money?

[bobbles]

This is a difficult one. I have a small live music agency in London and a very good looking site. My main source of business is the web.I am currently with Overture pay per click and would like to move over to a web optimisation company. My key phrases would be "wedding music" "corporate entertainment" "corporate hospitality" "entertainment agency" that kind of thing.

It is a shark pool out there. There are loads of companies making promises. They mostly want upto a £1000 up front. I am happy to pay £2000 a year for 10 search phrases but I need to know my money isnt going to go down the drain. To the right company £2000 is fantastic value for me. Has anyone direct experience of companies that have come up with the goods here in England?

Any suggestions, stories, advice gratefully received.

[Hunter]

Stick around here, read, read, read, then do it yourself for free :)

[andye]

Stick around here, read, read, read, then do it yourself for free :)

Agreed. I'm here in the UK - I took a look at some of the SEO companies at Internet World last week - I wouldn't go with any of them personally, you'd be much better sticking around here and doing it yourself.

Or if you don't have the time, then see if you can find a reputable consultant from among WW members.

hth, a.

[bobbles]

ANDYE wrote: "Or if you don't have the time, then see if you can find a reputable consultant from among WW members."

Thats me in a nut shell! I am a father of two girls, a trombonist working around Europe and England, I have the music agency to look after. I just have no time to learn how to do the things that need to be done in order to get me up on that first page of the major search engines.

As I said any recommendations would be gratefully received.

[andye]

Maybe you should post on the 'commercial exchange' board? It might get more notice there than here.

[webmasterworld.com...]

best, a.

[Marketing Guy]

Yes, pick a random face from the crowd who wants to play at being SEO for the day because he's been lurking on the forums for a few months and pay them instead of a real company. ;)

Bobbles you get what you pay for (most of the time). Read up some here so you know enough not to get shafted, then go look at legitimate companies who can offer examples of work they have done and testimonials from past clients. Look at the work they have done and be sure it won't hurt your site in the long term.

Gather a list of companies who you are confident about working with and ask them to submit proposals to you for the work. Compare / contrast and decide.

Re: WebmasterWorld members - of the minority who know what they are talking about and base their work on actual experience and understanding and not just random discussion forum rumours - I doubt you could afford them. ;)

No doubt there are many other folks who could perform an equally successful job within your price range, but I don't think you have the SEO knowledge to weed out the many more that don't.

Re: Internet World - why, I wouldn't buy SEO from a salesman either. ;) Nor, I wouldn't get my teeth checked by a plumber...

Conference, Trade show, forum, newspaper advert - whatever. It doesn't matter - if you want to make a decision on SEO services, then the best thing you can do is learn a little yourself so you can wade through the immense amount of BS there is in this industry.

Good thread here on what to look for in a SEO company: [webmasterworld.com...]

MG

[andye]

All good recommendations MG - of course he shouldn't just pick a random face from the crowd.

Re: Internet World - why, I wouldn't buy SEO from a salesman either.

I've been behind the scenes in great detail at one of the larger UK SEO companies, and I wasn't any more impressed with their techies - and with what they were actually doing to promote their clients' sites - than I was with their salespeople. Actually their salespeople were rather better at selling than their SEOs were at SEO. :)

Anyway, my point is that I believe he's likely to get better value from an experienced individual SEO consultant (and the process of choosing one should be very much as you describe) than from any of the larger UK SEO firms that I'm aware of.

best, a.

PS I guess I shouldn't tar them all with the same brush - I expect there are some decent larger SEO firms in the UK - I just haven't come across them.

[vincevincevince]

Get a quote. If the quote is detailed enough that you could do the work yourself based on it, then that's the company for you.

There are very few secrets in SEO. And those secrets there are may well get you into trouble downstream.

Don't trust companies which can't set out in detail what they will do for you, and hopefully, why.

[bobbles]

Thanks to everyone for taking the trouble to give me so much valuable advice. In talking to individual companies it is evident that some are selling snake oil and others are open about the work they will do. This mirrors you observation about people being transparent.

I suppose at the end of the day I am looking for an individual. Whether he/she works for a SEO company or for themselves is irrelevant. But I will feel a lot more confident about talking to companies now I have had the benefit of some impartial advice.

Thanks again.

[vincevincevince]

bobbles - if you do happen to find a good snake oil retailer do let me know - it's hard to get hold of good quality snake oil in these parts and my snake is creaking

[johntabita]

I know of an individual whom I trust. I use him whenever I have clients in need of SEO, since I don't do it myself. He's in Canada, however. If you'd like his contact info, send me a private message and I'll get it to you.

[Alioc]

How do I choose the right company and not waste my money?

If you have the time to learn and apply, anything you spend will be waste of money.

If you don't have the time, the single most important factor is the position of their own website. I wouldn't even ask for references. If they can compete with (other)experts and get in the top 10 for a keyword like "search engine optimization", they will most likely make your site a success. It's so simple.